That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?
Parallel Translations
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That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?
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That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?
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That which is is far off, and exceeding deep; who can find it out?
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Ecclesiastes 7:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Romans 11:33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
- Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
- 1 Timothy 6:16 He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.
- Job 28:28 To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’ ”
- Psalms 139:6 This knowledge is beyond me. It’s lofty. I can’t attain it.
- Job 11:7-8 “Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?
- Job 28:12-23 “But where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? Man doesn’t know its price; Neither is it found in the land of the living. The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’ It can’t be gotten for gold, neither will silver be weighed for its price. It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. No mention will be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it, nor will it be valued with pure gold. Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky. Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’ “God understands its way, and he knows its place.
- Psalms 36:6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.
- Deuteronomy 30:11-14 For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, spoken evil of others.
Or, spoken evil of others.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Ecc 7:24 That which is far off, and exceeding…
Ecc 7:24 That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?
Ver. 24. That which is far of and exceeding deep.] Not the minions of the muses, Mentemque habere queis bonam, et esse corculis datum est. {a} For though they should eviscerate themselves, like spiders, crack their sconces, or study themselves to death, yet can they not "understand all mysteries and all knowledge" {1Co 13:2} in natural things, how much less in supernatural! whereas weak sighted and sand blind persons, the more they strain their eyes to discern a thing perfectly, the less they see of it, as Vives hath observed. {b} It is utterly impossible for a mere naturalist, that cannot tell the form, the quintessence, that cannot enter into the depth of the flower, or the grass he treads on, to have the wit to enter into the deep things of God, "the mystery of Christ which was hid" {Eph 3:9-10} from angels till the discovery, and since that they are still students in it. David, though he saw further than his ancients, {Psa 119:99} yet he was still to seek of that which might be known. {Psa 119:96} Even as those great discoverers of the newly found lands in America, at their return were wont to confess, that there was still a plus ultra, something more beyond yet. Not only in innumerable other things am I very ignorant, saith Augustine, but also in the very Scriptures, multo plura nescio quam scio, {c} I am ignorant of many more things by odds than I yet understand. This present life is like the vale of Sciaessa, near unto the town called Patrae, of which Solinus saith, that it is famous for nothing but for its darksomeness, as being continually overcast with the shadows of nine hills that do surround it, so that the sun can hardly cast a beam of light into it. {d} Properemus ad coelestem Academiam, Let us hasten to the university of heaven, where the least child knows a thousand times more than the deepest doctor upon earth.
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{a} Dousa.
{b} L. Vives in Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. ii. c. 8.
{c} Aug., Epist.
{d} Poly. Hist., c. 12.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain No human wit can attain to perfect wisdom, or…
No human wit can attain to perfect wisdom, or to the exact knowledge of God’s counsels and-works, and the reasons of them, because they are unsearchably deep, and far above our sight; some of them being long since past, and therefore, utterly unknown to us, and others yet to come, which we cannot foreknow.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain That which is far off,.... Or, "far off is…
That which is far off,.... Or, "far off is that which has been" (g). That which has been done by God already, in creation and providence, is out of the reach of men, is far from their understandings wholly to comprehend or account for; and likewise that which is past with men, what has been done in former ages, the history of past times, is very difficult to come at: or rather, according to Schmidt, and Rambachius after him, what was of old is now afar off or absent; the image of God in man which consisted of perfect wisdom, and was created at the same time with him, is now lost, and that is the reason why wisdom is far from him;
and exceeding deep, who can find it out? the primitive perfect wisdom is sunk so deep and gone, that no man can find it to the perfection it was once enjoyed; see Job 28:12. This may respect the knowledge of God, and the perfections of his nature; which are as high as heaven, and deeper than hell, Job 11:7; and of his thoughts, counsels, purposes, and decrees, which are the deep things of God; as well as the doctrines of the Gospel, and the mysteries of grace, Co1 2:10; and even his providential dispensations towards the sons of men, Rom 11:33. The Targum of the whole is,
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"Lo, now it is far off from the children of men to know all that has been from the days of old; and the secret of the day of death, and the secret of the day in which the King Messiah shall come, who is he that shall find it out by his wisdom?''
(g) "remotum (est) illud quod fuit", Montanus, Mercerus, Vatablus, Drusius, Gejerus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain It - God's counsels and works, and the reasons…
It - God's counsels and works, and the reasons of them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 24. That which is far off] Though the…
Verse 24. That which is far off] Though the wisdom that is essential to our salvation may be soon learned, through the teaching of the Spirit of wisdom, yet in wisdom itself there are extents and depths which none can reach or fathom.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain literally, Far off is that which hath been i.…
literally, Far off is that which hath been i. e., events as they have occurred in the order of Divine Providence), and deep, deep, who can find it out?
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Me. This is a proof of having made great…
Me. This is a proof of having made great progress in wisdom, since the half-learned are the most presumptuous. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain That . . . far off . . .…
That . . . far off . . . deep--True wisdom is so when sought independently of "fear of God" (Ecc 7:18; Deu 30:12-13; Job 11:7-8; Job 28:12-20, Job 28:28; Psa 64:6; Rom 10:6-7).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 24. That which is far off — Better, That…
24. That which is far off — Better, That which was far, was still far. He is conscious of striking the dark border of the unknowable, in whose deep darkness lay that which, of all things, he most wished to know.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 24. That which is far off and exceeding deep]…
24. That which is far off and exceeding deep] The English of the latter clause scarcely expresses the Hebrew more emphatic iteration and deep deep. By some interpreters a like iteration is supplied in the first clause, far off is that which is far, but there does not seem adequate ground for thus altering the text. Rather are the first words to be taken of substantial being, far off from us is that which is (the τὰ ὄντα of Greek thought, the sum total of things past and present). So in another and later Jewish book impregnated, like this, with Greek thought, wisdom is described as a τῶν ὄντων γνῶσις ἀψευδής (“a true knowledge of the things that are” Wis_7:17). Comp. Job_11:7-8; Rom_11:33, for like language as to the Divine Counsels.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (24) Rather translate, “That which is, is far off.”…
(24) Rather translate, “That which is, is far off.” The phrase, “that which is,” or “hath been,” to denote the existing constitution of the universe, occurs in Ecc_1:9, Ecc_3:15. (See Ecc_8:17.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who…
That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out? The broken, interjectional style of the original in this passage, as Professor Taylor Lewis terms it, is better brought out by translating, "Far off is that which is, and deep, deep: who can find it out?" Professor Lewis renders, "Far off! the past, what is it? Deep a deep oh, who can find?" and explains "the past" to mean, not merely the earthly past historically unknown, but the great past before the creation of the universe, the kingdom of all eternities with its ages of ages, its worlds of worlds, its mighty evolutions, its infinite variety. We prefer to retain the rendering, "that which is," and to refer the expression to the phenomenal world. It is not the essence of wisdom that is spoken of, but the facts of man"s life and the circumstances in which he finds himself, the course of the world, the phenomena of nature, etc. These things their causes, connection, interdependence we cannot explain satisfactorily. (comp. Ecc_3:11 Ecc_8:17) In the Book of Wisdom (7:17-21) Solomon is supposed to have arrived at this abstruse knowledge, "for," he says, "God hath given me certain knowledge of the things that are (twn ontwn gnwsin ajyeudh)," and he proceeds to enumerate the various departments which this "universitas literarum" has opened to him. The Septuagint (and virtually the Vulgate) connects this verse with the preceding, thus:. "I said, I will be wise, and it (auth) was far from me, far beyond what was (makran uJper o hn), and deep depth: who shall find it out?" (For the epithet "deep" applied to what is recondite or what is beyond human comprehension, comp. Pro_20:5; Job_11:8)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.